Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice: Directors

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which of his Department's non-executive directors were appointed through open competition.

Chris Philp: All Ministry of Justice Non-Executive Board Members were recruited according to the guidance set out in the Corporate governance code for central government departments. The Ministry of Justice announces the appointments (including reappointment dates) of Non-Executive Board Members, as well as their experience, in the Annual Report and Accounts. Our current Non-Executives are covered in the following Annual Report and Accounts: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/936835/moj-annual-report-accounts-2019-2020.pdf

Department of Health and Social Care

NHS: Drugs

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to scale up domestic manufacturing of (a) medicines and (b) covid-19 vaccines.

Edward Argar: In April 2021, the Government launched the £20 million Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund to incentivise companies to invest the United Kingdom. In addition we are working with industry on building robust and resilient UK supply chains for the future. We have invested over £350 million to secure and increase our capabilities to manufacture vaccines in order to respond to COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Bio Products Laboratory

Sir Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which other providers compete with Bio Products Laboratory Limited for NHS contracts; and if he will make a statement.

Edward Argar: The National Health Service Commercial Medicine Unit contracted with the Bio Products Laboratory Limited in four tendering exercises. The following table shows the frameworks under which the company was contracted and the awarded suppliers. Framework TitleAwarded SuppliersNHS Framework Agreement for the Supply of Human AlbuminBio Products Laboratory LtdBiotest UK LtdCSL Behring UK LtdGrifols UK LtdOctapharma LtdNHS Framework Agreement for the Supply of Human Normal Immunoglobulin and Anti-D ImmunoglobulinBio Products Laboratory LtdBiotest UK LtdCSL Behring UK LtdGrifols UK LtdLFB BiomedicamentsOctapharma LtdTakeda UK LtdNHS Framework Agreement for the supply of products for the treatment of Haemophilia ABio Products Laboratory LtdBiotest UK LtdGrifols UK LtdNovo Nordisk LtdOctapharma LtdPfizer LtdRoche Products LtdSwedish Orphan Biovitrum Ltd (Sobi Ltd)Takeda UK LtdNHS Framework Agreement for the supply of products for the treatment of bleeding disordersBio Products Laboratory Ltd

Health and Care Bill

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral contribution of 14 July 2021, Official Report, column 427, if he will clarify which posts would be subject to Schedule 2, Clause 17 of the Health and Care Bill.

Edward Argar: Schedule 2, Clause 17 of the Health and Care Bill does not refer to specific posts as it has been designed to be flexible to allow local areas to determine what they need. This will function in much the same way as it does in current clinical commissioning groups.

Coronavirus: Contact Tracing

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,  what estimate his Department has made of the number of calls (a) made to, (b) answered by and (c) that were answered within 60 seconds by the 119 covid-19 NHS test and trace service in each month from January to June 2021.

Jo Churchill: NHS Test and Trace has made an informal estimate of call volumes and response times. However, as this is primarily used for management purposes, it has not been centrally verified.

Coronavirus: Screening

Mark Jenkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the selection criteria and process for the daily covid-19 contact testing workplace pilot.

Jo Churchill: Daily contact testing permits a contact of a positive case of COVID-19 to test daily for seven days with a lateral flow device, with each negative result releasing the individual to undertake essential activities for 24 hours.Organisations participating in the workplace daily contact testing pilot were selected because they had expressed an interest in joining the pilot and already had an asymptomatic test site in the workplace. The workplaces selected were also designed to ensure a spread of different types of organisation, including additional public sector organisations, to assess the operational implications of running daily contact testing. A document setting out in more detail the process and selection criteria for the workplace daily contact testing pilot is currently under review prior to publication.

Coronavirus: Screening

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many lateral flow tests for covid-19 are available for (a) August, (b) September, (c) October, (d) November and (e) December 2021.

Jo Churchill: The Department is unable to release this information as it is currently being used for the formulation of government policy on lateral flow testing. We procured 294m Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests in May and are constantly reviewing demand to ensure we have enough stock to satisfy demand. We have recently received approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to use a United Kingdom made LFD, a real milestone on the progressive journey of the UK diagnostics and life sciences industry.